Hosp, David 1968(?)–

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Hosp, David 1968(?)–

(Richard David Hosp)

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1968, in New York, NY; married; wife's name Joanie; children: Reid, Samantha. Education: Dartmouth College, B.A. (cum laude), 1990; George Washington University, J.D. (cum laude), 1994.

ADDRESSES:

Home—MA. Office—Goodwin Procter LLP, Exchange Pl., Boston, MA 02109. E-mail—[email protected]; [email protected].

CAREER:

Admitted to the Bars of New York and Massachusetts. Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam & Roberts (law firm; now Pillsbury Winthrop), New York, NY, former associate in litigation department; Goodwin Procter, LLP, Boston, MA, partner.

MEMBER:

American Intellectual Property Law Association.

WRITINGS:

Dark Harbor (novel), Warner Books (New York, NY), 2005.

The Betrayed (novel), Warner Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Innocence (novel), Warner Books (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Attorney David Hosp began writing his first novel, Dark Harbor, during his commute to work. Writing had always been a hobby, but prior to this he had never managed to complete a manuscript. Drawing on his legal background, he created a thriller/murder mystery about attorney Scott Finn, who is on his way to becoming a partner at his Boston firm. He finds his future in jeopardy, however, when coworker and former lover, Natalie Caldwell, is murdered. It appears to be the work of a serial killer, but when Finn gets involved in the case, the situation begins to shift, and he becomes the chief suspect. Lisa O'Hara remarked in Library Journal that this "intricate novel is a tremendously satisfying and suspenseful read." A contributor to Publishers Weekly found that, although the "book feels overlong,… [Hosp] earns genuine empathy for these flawed human beings struggling to be both ethical and effective." Joe Hartlaub, a contributor to Bookreporter.com, called Dark Harbor "an impressive debut by an author whose talent looks to run deep, and long."

Hosp's next novel, The Betrayed, finds attorney Sydney Chapin returning to Washington to be near her very wealthy family when her sister Elizabeth is murdered. Her death at first appears to be the result of a home invasion by a drug dealer, but Elizabeth was a reporter, and as such, she may have had information that someone needed to remain unknown. Sydney works to find her sister's killer with Detective Darius Train, a tough former football player, and Jack Cassian, his polar opposite. The detectives upset the police commissioner with a list of very influential suspects, and when it is discovered that experiments were conducted at the Virginia Juvenile Institute for the Mentally Defective, a state facility that routinely sterilized patients, other murders are committed and the body count rises. "Compelling, extremely likable characters are the draw here," commented Joanne Wilkinson in Booklist.

Scott Finn returns in Innocence, now in private practice after leaving his law firm. Assisting Scott are legal intern Lissa Krantz and Tom Kozlowski, a former policeman who is now a private investigator. Scott takes on a pro bono case involving Vincente Salazar, a Salvadoran doctor whose gang-connected family pulled him out of El Salvador during the revolutionary 1980s, and who has served fifteen years for the 1992 shooting of Madeline Steele, an agent of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) who was handling his deportation case. DNA evidence may prove the man's innocence, but there are those who don't want the case involving the crime reopened. Mark Dobson, an attorney working for the New England Innocence Project (an actual organization with which Hosp has been involved), and the man who convinces Scott to take the case, becomes a victim, killed by a machete. Madeline, who is now confined to a wheelchair, refuses to cooperate.

A Kirkus Reviews contributor observed that Hosp "provides a touching romance involving Lurch-like Koz and gutter-mouthed Lissa, who steal the show." Library Journal reviewer O'Hara concluded: "A riveting book that is hard to put down and will keep you hooked until the very end."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, May 1, 2006, Joanne Wilkinson, review of The Betrayed, p. 33; May 1, 2007, David Pitt, review of Innocence, p. 28.

Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2005, review of Dark Harbor, p. 375; May 15, 2007, review of Innocence.

Library Journal, May 15, 2005, Lisa O'Hara, review of Dark Harbor, p. 105; June 15, 2006, Lisa O'Hara, review of The Betrayed, p. 64; June 15, 2007, Lisa O'Hara, review of Innocence, p. 56.

Publishers Weekly, April 25, 2005, review of Dark Harbor, p. 35; May 1, 2006, review of The Betrayed, p. 35; May 14, 2007, review of Innocence.